I began eating keto style in mid-September.  Since then, I've lost fifteen pounds.  I weighed 199 at the time, and the weight loss is very slow, but I'm losing incrementally every week.  It may take another year or so to reach my goal weight.  By the way, my goal weight is the top of the recommended range for my height and age.  I'm not trying to be skinny or beautiful.  Rather, I want to stay healthy and live lots of years enjoying my life with Steve.  I'm not suffering at all on keto.  Whether we are in Birch Bay or Waianae, we enjoy each day.  Both places are fabulous in their season.  The temperature in Birch Bay is in the twenties at night and barely reaching the 40's during the day.  We're so lucky to we're able to escape the cold and gloom winters bring to Washington.  Our space in Waianae is so beautiful peaceful, comfortable and private even though we live right off the main highway.  We travel this highway along Oahu's west coast daily and the beauty of our surroundings is indescribable.  The beaches all along our route feature crashing waves, surfers, kayakers and sailboats enjoying the pristine oceans featuring shades of blue from aqua to azure to turquoise to royal as white-capped waves break through and crash on the rocks or ease into the sandy beaches.  You've got to see it to realize how gorgeous it really is.  Lately on our drive to Kapolei we're seeing water spouts and sometimes a tail or a back of a migrating whale.  When we return from our trip to Kapolei we generally head to the marina.  Steve fishes while I enjoy the views and listen to PBS News Hour, and then my current audio book.  We try to stay at the marina until dusk and we eat when we return, usually between 6:30 and 7:00 P.M.  By this time, the flies are gone and there are very few mosquitoes.  We manage to keep them at bay using a smoking coil.  I attribute my success to the fact that we stay busy, filling our day with activities and plan our meals so that we rarely eat impulsively.  The space we inhabit matters as well, but we can create a lovely ambiance nearly anywhere.  So, even though it is slow going, everything I do is working for me and I think the keto plan will remain in place for my lifetime.

     Cooking outdoors is a great option for us because the weather here is fabulous and since we eat all of our meals on the lanai, why not cook them nearby?  We commonly cook burgers and Italian sausages that we purchase readymade at Costco.  The price is right for both, but more importantly for my diet, there are no additional ingredients that wreck the keto plan.  How do I know?  I read the labels.  I advise you to always read the labels.  You never know what additives are thrown in to readymade items.  Of course, it is better to make your own food items from the most basic ingredients, but sometimes convenience matters.  In that case, read!  For example, I am in the habit of purchasing garlic that is already minced and in a jar.  Usually, it is easy to find and there is nothing added but a little water.  However, this last purchase of minced garlic contained oil, and the wrong kind of oil.  I ditched the jar, which is highly unusual for me because I'm very stingy.  But it's not worth impacting my carb numbers with something as  inane as garlic.  Over the winter, I did the same thing with minced ginger.  I grabbed it off the shelf and only just at the time I was ready to cook with it did I realize it was infused with corn syrup!  Ugh!  I never suspected that ginger needed corn syrup.  That was an important lesson.  Now, I grate or mince my own ginger, even though I inevitably scrape my knuckles.  So, this past weekend we cooked out on Friday and Saturday, and it was very enjoyable.  Steve is the outdoor master chef and it's fun chatting and enjoying the lovely aromas of outdoor barbeque.  Have  I mentioned how few flies and mosquitoes there are? It seems that the flies disappear at dusk, and mosquitoes are hardly worth noticing.  We sit at our outdoor table enjoying lovely breezes that come down to us from the beautiful mountains surrounding us, and enjoy our time together.  I am currently looking for a unique dessert to accompany our next cookout, and hope I find something that will prove delicious and keto friendly.  I'' report back next week.  Until then, enjoy the great outdoors.

     Finding ways to go out and eat without ruining my keto diet became an interesting game and so I want to share some of my favorite places, cuisines, and how I can manage to stick to the program and still enjoy myself.  To begin with, Steve and I both love a good burger, and while living in Virginia, got sold on Five Guys.  We've heard that the franchise might fail, and hope that's not true.  We just visited the Kapolei restaurant last week and the burgers were every bit as good as they were in Houston or Virginia.  I order mine in a lettuce wrap and they are very generous with the lettuce.  Thinking about my favorite burger restaurant in places we've lived made me think about the other favorite restaurants we've frequented.  Thai food is sometimes much too sweet, but we found an amazing restaurant near our home in Seabrook, Texas.  The Merlion Restaurant is near the bay, and serves delicious spicy seafood curry.  We substitute stir fried veggies for the rice, but if that were not possible, we'd stir-fry cabbage for the curry sauce.  We were able to do so because we rarely ate in.  The inside of the place is a little over the top using huge paintings of nude women on the walls as the main décor and some pretty gaudy colors that clash with their plastic flower arrangements. There is also lots of raucous noise from the bar that diners enter through to get to the tables, and we can do without that as well, so we commonly called in our order and carried out the deliciously prepared meal.  Our other favorite restaurant while living in Houston was Floyds Seafood, a Cajun restaurant.  Steve loves the oysters on the half-shell, and I love the crab bisque.  We occasionally went to Pappadeaux's restaurant also, to enjoy their crawfish etouffee.  However, there are many choices that are keto friendly.  Another of our favorite Houston restaurants serves Indian cuisine.  The Noon Mirch restaurant offers and all you can eat buffet, providing many keto friendly selections deliciously prepared in fragrant spices.  Their food is similar to another favorite Indian restaurant we frequented in Fairfax, Virginia called Jaipur Cuisine after the style of food from an Indian city.  Steve and I are willing to travel expressly for trying new foods.  That is what we did when we travelled to Rhode Island to visit The Nordic Lodge.  This is one of the best buffet ever!  They serve some many fabulous items, but I love the fresh, all you can eat, lobster.  This was definitely worth the trip from Virginia to Rhode Island, and we'll try to visit it again when Steve defends his dissertation at Virginia Tech.  It is close to a lovely little town called Newport,  and there are many wonderful places to visit there so I suggest staying in Newport and travelling to the restaurant.  I'm pushing hard for Steve to wrap up his writing so I can have another fabulous meal there.  But, I digress.  For now, we're in Hawaii, and visiting some of our favorite restaurants here.  In fact, we just met our son and his husband for a late lunch at Mei Sum Dim Sum for Dim Sum, of course!  Delicious!  More on finding ways to enjoy Keto style meals in our neck of the woods next week!